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Tag Archives: jacob lambs
More Lambs
I took these photos before it started raining again.
A cute blue-eyed lilac lamb. This is on the “keep” list. Meridian Catalyst x Shadow Mountain Shelby.
Meridian Hot Lips with triplets also sired by Catalyst.
Meridian Sophia with BFL-x triplets.
Meridian Sonata with triplets sired by bide a wee Buster.
Ears and her crossbred lambs.
Meridian Estelle also with crossbred lambs.
Meridian Ruth. Lambs sired by Catalyst.
And while we’re at it let’s throw in another springtime photo.
The wisteria has started to bloom.
View from Above
Photos taken in the barn last night with my phone.
These are the pregnant ewes and a couple of wethers (including that very freckled one in the middle).
Photos over the lambing pens:
Mae’s lambs born yesterday.
Marilla and her BFL-x lamb born yesterday…in motion…in the dark.
Skye and her twins also from yesterday.
Sonata’s lambs, born yesterday.
Windy Acres Bronagh and lambs, born during the night, which is one reason I was taking photos…waiting for lambs.
Bide a wee Hallie and her lambs, a few days old.
This is the list so far except for Bronagh.
The Lucky Ones
As you must know when there are almost 80 lambs born in the spring I can’t keep them all. How many sheep would I have in 5 years? Who can do the math? My sheep capacity is about 55-65 adults. That includes a few wethers, more rams than I probably need, and the ewe lambs that I choose to keep. Someone has to go and a handful get to stay.
I just sent registration applications in for the lambs who are staying here. I was going to share their photos and then I thought that it would be fun to see their baby photos as well. For those of you who pay attention to who the sheep are I have included the (sire x dam).
This one is Sylvia and the photo below was taken last week. (Rotor x Sonata)
Here is Marilla (named in a contest for her mother, Marilyn, and because she was our Spinzilla ravatar) in March and below in September. This is a good pair of photos that show that even when a sheep is black and white, the wool may look brown due to sun bleaching. The markings on the face and legs will indicate the true color, at least in Jacob sheep.
This is Marilla’s brother, Marv. He is one of only two ram lambs that I kept this year. He was champion Jacob ram at Black Sheep Gathering and his dad, Rotor, was Supreme Champion at the CA State Fair. The photo below shows the difference in rate of horn growth between ewes (Marilla) and rams (Marv). (Rotor x Marilyn)
This is Stacy as a newborn lamb and below at 7 months. (Crosby x Estelle)
More newborn photos. This is Jean with twins. I kept both of these lambs. The ewe lamb, trying to stand, is Cindy, below. The lamb nursing is the ram, Joker, in the photo below Cindy. (Nash x Jean)
Joker has a group of ewes and is wearing a marking harness with a red marker.
This is Vanessa with her lambs. Vanna , on the right, was 5.2 pounds when she was born, but you wouldn’t know that now. (Rotor x Vanessa)
Vixen is the only lilac lamb I kept. Her markings are a brown/gray instead of black. That shows up better in the photo above than below. (Nash x Foxglove)
This lamb is Virginia (Rotor x Ventura).
This is bide a wee Trista, the one lamb that I purchased, so I didn’t take a baby photo. But I just looked and, yes there is one on the bide a wee farm website. Here is Trista as a little lamb.
Vixen, Virginia, Cindy, Vanna.
Faces in the Barn
We’re up to 66 lambs now. Here are some of them.
March Came in Like a Lamb
March!
Western redbud near the house. I wish it would bloom all spring.
These are Mae’s lambs.
Sisters from last year, Jade and Jillian, waiting to go to the pasture. Jade wasn’t bred but Jillian is pregnant.
Sending the pregnant ewes out in back.
These are yesterday’s lambs:
Loretta and a single ram, standing. The one on the ground is the lamb that Raquel rejected a couple of days ago. I successfully “slime grafted” her to Loretta. More about that in a future post.
Later in the day Alexandria lambed with little tiny lambs, both under 5 pounds, but vigorous and healthy.
Cascade lambed with a single ram last night. That lamb is to me an average size but weights only one pound more than Alexandria’s combined.
Here is the status so far. Color coding for girl/boy. BT means that the lambs have had BOSE (selenium and Vitamin E supplement) injections and their tails have been banded. Sires are Ringo, Rotor, Nash, and Faulkner. Only 26 ewes left to lamb!
Meeting the Flock
There were unplanned lambs born January 23. I have kept those three lambs with their dams separate from the rest of the flock while it was raining and the sheep were in the barn area. 
Last week as it was drying out I put the flock on the pasture and then turned the new lambs out with them.
One thing I watch for when putting lambs in the pasture for the first time is that they don’t get tangled up in the electric fence. 
I’m glad to see when they touch the fence because I know that they will have learned to avoid it.
This looks worse than it was. The whole incident was very brief and then…
…the nearby lamb was off and running.
Bertha, one of the yearlings thought this looked like a good game…
…so she kept up the chase.
Eventually this lamb found his mom who hadn’t been particularly concerned about him.
In the meantime the other two lambs stuck near their mom. I’m going to use colored tags again this year to give me more information about the lambs at a glance, mostly about sires. However, these first three have an unknown sire and the ram lambs (gorgeous as they are) have been banded. That’s what the red tags mean–wether.
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